AbstrActThis article examines Han Chinese who has historically practiced Tibetan Buddhism in the Qinghai-Gansu border region. The main primary sources were published in the 1990s, based on surveys by Chinese social scientists who were sent around in the 1950s to collect data on Tibetan Buddhist institutions as well as additional independent surveys from the 1980s and my own site visits in 2006. On the basis of these sources, I argue that there are at least 100,000 and probably as many as 200,000 Han Chinese on the borders of Qinghai and Gansu (part of the Amdo cultural region for Tibetans) practicing Tibetan Buddhism, following traditions that seem to have been in place for centuries. I also discuss the sixteen historic cases of Han Chinese reincate lamas and the over one hundred monasteries in this region affiliated with Han Chinese. Finally, I note the sectarian affiliations (jiaopai: Nyingma, Geluk, etc.) and religious practices of these Chinese communities practicing Tibetan Buddhism.